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Underground > Radio & Music >

Humour in pop music

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No star here laces

11:34 / 11.09.01

Whatcha reckon?

I'm not talking about your MC Paul Barmans, and your Tenacious Ds and the like - I mean pop.

Can you think of any funny records that charted and were actually any good?

11:49 / 11.09.01

erm... I think Weird Al might have hit the charts for a bit when he did that Star Wars song right as Episode 1 was coming out...

11:53 / 11.09.01

I used to love The Firm's 'Star Trekkin'..
Neil's "Hole in My Shoe" was kind of cool as well.

Jasper Carrott "Funky Moped" - the B-side "the magic roundabout" is mental!

14:48 / 11.09.01

Some would say Eminem is funny...

16:55 / 11.09.01

In the 80s, there was Pac Man Fever.

06:06 / 12.09.01

Didn't "Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen have some success in the eighties? I can remember hearing "Elvis Is Everywhere" by Mojo Nixon on the radio...

13:03 / 12.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Cop Killer:
Didn't "Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen have some success in the eighties? I can remember hearing "Elvis Is Everywhere" by Mojo Nixon on the radio...

I don't know if it charted but here's the Dress Me Up Paper Punk Girl to print out to your hearts content.

... I was listening to Beelzebubba the other day... Shanghai Sex Hotel and we're going to a Bad Party still crack me up....

Cut Out and Keep Punk Girl

08:59 / 13.09.01

I think comedy/novelty records are a much neglected medium. I love 'em (sometimes).

Recently, 'Frontier Psychiatry' by the Avalanches was a complete hoot, and some of the songs from the Southpark album were jolly entertaining..

Half-Man Half-Biscuit raise comedy songs to the level of an artform, mainly due to the fact that besides their terrific lyrics and constant music industry piss-taking, they write genuinely great tunes that stand up to repeated listening.

I'm also a great fan of the funny songs Beck did in his early years - 'Satan Gave Me a Taco', 'Death is Coming', 'Steve Threw Up', 'Mexico' and 'MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack' being amongst the best.
I guess he doesn't do songs like that anymore becuase they're 'silly', but I think they're easily as good as his 'serious' stuff..

But, er, none of these things 'charted' did they..

Zig and Zag did though.

13:16 / 13.09.01

It is my destiny to write a song called "Smoking Anal Crack." My name will be in lights...

13:18 / 13.09.01

Did you see what I did there? The double meaning? Did you see???

17:58 / 13.09.01

i think a good deal of pulp's output is funny.

the beatles wrote some very funny songs.

think they're both about as 'pop' as you can get.

Rollo Kim, on location

18:27 / 13.09.01

Interesting. Me and a mate in Liverpool are kind of setting up this semi-fictional record company for semi-fictional, post-rational, bizarre music that's hopefully amusing. Well it amuses me anyway.

But I'm actually hard pressed to think of anything. What about what Chris Morris did with Blue Jam [the radio version]. Did the CD chart?

And Eminem seems like a novelty act most of the time.

[ 13-09-2001: Message edited by: Rollo ]

19:46 / 14.09.01

off the topic (a bit to the left, perhaps)

Rollo,
Excellent site (above).
By strange co-incidence, I was thinking of this the other day:

Pre-Rock. Tomorrow hits the new Go! Sound of Today. Only yesterday...
A contemporary imagining of what pre-Rock n Roll musicians would have imagined Rock n Roll to sound like if they were played a selection of post-rock.
Ambient-skiffle, Kraut-bop, Washboard-dub

Classic Albums,

The Glenn Miller Groop play Little Brown Dub in the Milky Twilight.
The Duke Ellington Dub Allstars press forward/ skip on the Electro-grass hits of Jim Reeves (special 4000hz mix). (“unlistenable” – Tone Def magazine)
The Boards of Gershwin versus Ash Ra Shirley Tempel – de-mix project: triple 10” pack, limited to 1 copy (later misplaced)....

Ganesh

22:38 / 14.09.01

I'm a big fan of The Bloodhound Gang. Are they 'humourous' or what?

23:04 / 14.09.01

I like Michael Jackson's ode to a rat "Ben"

"i used to think (used to think)/ I and me (I and me)/ Now it's us (now it's us)/ Now it's we . . ."

Frank And Moon Unit Zappa's "Valley Girl"

like Oh my God, like totally

Mark.E.Smith from the Fall is one of the funniest lyricists and deliverers of song (maybe not POP)
"Lie dream of the casino soul"
"I'm into CB"
"Totally wired" - "I drunk a jar of coffee/ then I took some of these/ And I'm totally wired/ t-t-t-totally wired."

Rollo Kim, on location

20:58 / 15.09.01

I'd say The Bloodhound Gang were a joke, definitely. [Sorry Gan!]

I love the idea of Kraut-bop! Some composer chap wrote a whole collection of tunes based on what he thought 'ragtime' would sound like, before he'd actually heard any.

I once saw The Bonso Dog Dooda Band [or however you spell em] on TV. Their singer had on a huge carnival type moulded head thing on that looked EXACTLY LIKE TRICKY.

What about Tom Waits... I fuckin love Tom Waits and he's got a certain humour to his stuff.

23:57 / 15.09.01

Rollo wrote
quote:I fuckin love Tom Waits and he's got a certain humour to his stuff.

" Real Pain for my sham friends, and champagne for my real friends"

- Tom Waits

[ 16-09-2001: Message edited by: agsolutely ]

01:00 / 16.09.01

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Harry’s Harbour House is proud to present, under the big top tonight, Human Oddities. That’s right, you’ll see The Three Headed Baby, you’ll see Hitler’s brain…… You’ll see Priscilla Bajano the monkey woman, JoJo the dog face boy….. “ : Mr Waits, the original Black Rider, introduces the band.

Ganesh

10:15 / 16.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Rollo:
I'd say The Bloodhound Gang were a joke, definitely. [Sorry Gan!]

Which is why I mention 'em in this thread.

A

12:20 / 16.09.01

I think that "Monster Mash" would probably count. It ain't exactly "funny" by our standards, but them was simpler times back in the fifties.

Someone mentioned Weird Al Yankovic- he's had numerous hits, i think that "Eat It" was a number one, and "Fat" may have come close. I was under the impression that he was the highest selling comedy artist of all time, but i recently saw some award show that said that Jeff Foxworthy was, so I dunno.

Spike Jones and His City Slicker Orchestra were pretty damn popular back in the 40's or 50's or whenever, and they were unquestionably funny. I'd say that they pass as "pop" by the standards of those times. fun fact- Spike invented the latrinophone.

The Offspring have had one or two hits that were supposed to be funny, but they don't seem funny in a "ha ha" way to me.
and they're shite.

"Do the Bartman" by Bart Simpson might count, but it really wasn't very funny. or good, for that matter.

"Stutter Rap" by Moris Minor and The Majors would count, though, I believe.

yikes, that's a lot

19:58 / 16.09.01

quote:Originally posted by count adam:
I think that "Monster Mash" would probably count. It ain't exactly "funny" by our standards, but them was simpler times back in the fifties.

How dare you!

The Monster Mash is funny as fuck!

And it was covered by..

The Bonzo Dog Band!
How the hell did I forget to mention them in my earlier post?

They did some very, very funny songs..

(..as well as some appalling Sgt. Peppers ripoffs and a load of jazz-toss, but let's remember the funny songs..)

Also dredged up from the depths;

The Divine Comedy - Something For The Weekend
This used to have me in stitches whenever it came on the radio. It was quite refreshing when compared to all the post-britpop crap that was floating 'round at the time. And it continues to be very funny.

"he said, now baby don't be stupid,
there's nothing in the woodshed..
..except maybe some wood."

A hefty proportion of the output of pop-punk bands like NOFX and The Vandals also consists of comedy songs..

20:33 / 16.09.01

You can always rely on Devo, B52’s and The Cramps for a bit of arched fun. And check out Lux Interior’s sublime Purple Knif Show LP:
“Take Me To Your Leader Cha, Cha Cha”, anyone?

09:43 / 17.09.01

Ol' Dirty Bastard. Guaranteed to make you laugh or make you very worried.

deletia

09:43 / 17.09.01

Half Man Half Biscuit are not exactly straddling the world like mighty pop Colossi, but they rock like cock socks.

Doctor Sax

13:27 / 17.09.01

And he'd managed to get hold of
A Dukla Prague away kit
Because his uncle owned a sports shop
and he'd kept it to one side.

And after only five minutes
You'd be down to ten men
Cos he'd taken off your right back
For taking the base from under his left winger

Come to half time you'd be losing four-nil
Each and every goal a hotly-disputed penalty
Then you'd smash up the floodlights
The match was abandoned
The dog would bark
And you'd be banned from his house.

Etc.

Rollo Kim, on location

18:30 / 17.09.01

"Can you smell my presence in the laundry of your cat-walk girl - friend..." HMHB?

19:11 / 17.09.01

Tindersticks have done some funny stuff. That's funny as in makes-you-smile, dry humour funny, not laugh-out-loud funny. 'My Sister' and 'Ballad of Tindersticks' are two personal faves.

Quasi can be similarly 'funny'.

19:17 / 17.09.01

Pavement?

The Fall?

20:37 / 17.09.01

the Tiger Lilies ... one of the only actually funny popular (not pop) music I know of. (they ain't pop. they don't sound pop.)

sheerly as a band I love Bongwater. love 'em. they do many wacky songs. on their bootleg live CD similarly funny. taunting the audience, et cetera.

11:08 / 18.09.01

If we're quoting Half Man.. lyrics, allow me to introduce you all to the greatest drunken singalong in history:

a 1,2,3,4;

quote:
the singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope,
the singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope,
the singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope,
and the Pope said to his aide..

whooo the fucking hell are Slipknot?
whooo the fucking hell are Slipknot?
whooo the fucking hell are Slipknot, in relation to me getting out of bed?

I love that song, I've been bawling it like a terrace hooligan at every possible oppurtunity..

20:21 / 19.09.01

10cc - expecially their earlier outings.
While they became famous for a very competent romanthic number ("I'm Not in Love"), a lot of their ouutput was extremely humorous.

And before that, The Kinks - "Well Respected Man", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" and many others were pretty funny.

07:19 / 20.09.01

I have a friend, who, because she's female, completely misses the point of Arab Strap and finds them very funny.

I, by contrast, usually find them tragic. Unless I'm drunk, when they're hilarious.

And I'd have killed to have been at Reading to hear them cover "Whole Again"...

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:16 / 21.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Paleface:
I have a friend, who, because she's female, completely misses the point of Arab Strap and finds them very funny.

Girls, huh? They just don't get the pain of being a man.

Moving on - swiftly! - Pulp are funny, and also sad. You can do both, y'know. Even at the same time.

"Grass is something you smoke
Birds are something you shag
Take your Year in Provence and
Shove it
Up
Your
ARSE."

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:25 / 21.09.01

quote:Originally posted by RedRunningLord:
Mr Waits, the original Black Rider, introduces the band.Live, it's the same thing. Only from the back of the room. With a megaphone. Rock. He's not working the humour angle quite as much anymore as when he was a drop-down drunkard, but there's a couple of gems in him anyway. Even if he does occasionally pass of Oscar Wilde's quotes as his own.

And the Tiger Lillies! Yes! Bumhole! Of course, some of their stuff will have you wanting to top yourself, but there's nothing like a description of a skullfucked saviour set to jaunty tunesmanship to get you giggling. Well, sometimes, anyway. "Killer" always gets me laughing, though. Awesome, awesome stuff.

I need to bring The Cramps into this. They're funny as fuck. Though I wouldn't like to tell Poison Ivy that.

And Frenzal Rhomb. Just because I went to university with them, and they got kicked off a TV channel for not playing their single of the time, and instead played "Get Fucked, You Fucking Fuckwit (You Can't Move Into My House)". Class.

14:33 / 21.09.01

Rizla, you brought them up so I just had to mention the classic "a tijuana gypsy stole my personal stereo" by zig and zag.Pure demented musical genius.

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